What does it mean to be a librarian?
I’ve written about why I like the title, what my favorite parts of my job are, and activities that I’m involved in and in the last week, it’s been a perfect blend of all of the reasons that I love what I do.
- I spent four days at the American Library Association Midwinter conference in Denver, Colorado (more to come on that!)
- Took a picture with one of my favorite 11th grade students holding the first three volumes of a graphic novel that he loved and that made our Great Graphic Novels for Teens Top 10 list- in part because of his love for it.
- I finished up the last day of 10th grade visits to the library for stations around social justice topics for their third quarter project.
- We hosted a librarian from a local private school for an hour to share and talk collaboratively with all of us leaving better off than we were.
- I spent a teacher’s lunch strategizing a new way to address a class that needs major modifications to be successful and brainstormed an amazing idea to address their curricular needs while saving the sanity of the teacher and making the learning engaging for the students.
- Advising for our Anime Club every Friday afternoon.
- Meeting our newly appointed principal for our monthly gathering to advocate for our program.
- Talking with teachers and students who have big ideas to highlight our student community with positive acts and events hosted in the library.
- Facilitating a book group of middle and high school librarians who get together over snacks and share their recent reads
- Starting and continuing to lead several professional development opportunities.
- And asked to do another in May!
- I’m reading- flush with spring 2018 (and some summer and fall 2018) advanced reader copies from authors whose amazingness is unrivaled and going through them like a bag of Sour Patch Kids.
- I’m going in to this coming week’s winter break with a few tea or dinner dates with librarians who make me appreciate the collegiality of our profession and inspire me to be better.
Some of these will get their own posts, but like I said to the teacher today when I was dropping off some books for her to peruse in preparation for our new adventure, “you made my librarian heart full today, thank you!”
As I started to shape what I wanted to share in this post, I also remembered that a fellow New York State librarian, Sue Kowalski, often uses the hashtag #momentsthatmatter when she posts to Instagram, usually when sharing pictures of her mother, but friends and family. She knows the value of a moment. I wonder if she could have contributed to the book? In essence, the Heath brothers set out to demonstrate to readers how experiences in our lives have an “extraordinary impact” and drill down to the four elements of powerful moments: Elevation, Insight, Pride, and Connection. They reluctantly share the acronym to easily remember it as EPIC.
As a large city school district, we have the ability to host three drives a year: October, January, and May and collect about 100 units per drive which is amazingly powerful. A smattering of staff, but the majority of these units are donated by upperclassmen looking to help our community.
1. The Reason You’re Alive by Matthew Quick
2. Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples (artist)
3. From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty
4. Difficult Women by Roxane Gay
5. Dear Fahrenheit 451: A Librarian’s Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life by Annie Spence
6. The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur
1. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
2. Goodbye Days by Jeffrey Zentner
3. What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold
4. Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani
5. Snow & Rose by Emily Winfield Martin
6. Words on Bathroom Walls by Julia Walton
How do I feel? In one word, accomplished. I saw the yearlong activity through from January through December. I posted each week using the prompts and in between with other blogging-related content like book reviews and librarian activities. I’d say that it’s a characteristic of my personality, the need to accomplish an activity once it’s started. Ultimately every library activity from author visits (planned years in advance sometimes) to preparation for the year ahead is an exercise in perseverance. Students may change, the weather even, and administration or colleagues, but inside you need to revisit the concepts and the reasons, refining them and getting as close to perfection as they can before the launch. You hear this from authors whose published books began years before.
Readers Be Advised 